Shoelace Killer Sprints to Freedom from Texas Prison

Two inmates — one accused of strangling someone with a shoelace — used their feet to make a mad dash to freedom Tuesday when they successfully broke out of a Texas prison. The Associated Press reports 45-year-old capital murder suspect Brian Allen Tucker (above at left) and 40-year-old suspected burglar John Marlin King (right) escaped through the Hopkins County Jail female recreation yard Tuesday in Sulphur Springs, Texas, about 75 miles northeast of Dallas. Tucker was being held on $1 million bond for allegedly "strangling a 63-year-old man with shoelaces then stole his musical instruments in May 2011," according to the Dallas Morning News. The schools in the surrounding Sulphur Springs area have been placed on lockdown.

The scariest part is how easy their escape seemed. It was just two guys away from everyone else making a break for it. The Deputy Alvin Jordan told WFAA Dallas the two prisoners were separated from the rest of the inmates when they slipped between a gap in the prison gate and fence after fleeing through the rec yard. Somehow the guy in charge on monitoring the prison's video surveillance missed the whole escape go down. "Undoubtedly, they slipped out and he looked and they were gone," Jordan told WFAA.

So the two men are now out roaming the free world and they're not even in their prison suits, but the Texas Rangers and local authorities helping with the hunt already lost at least one obvious clue. Authorities found the black and white prison jumpsuits on the train tracks near the prison. So now the two men are either naked or in plain clothes, instead of the really obvious prison stripes. But they've got shoes, presumably, and those shoes are important.

News reports are focusing on the Germanwings pilot's possible depression, following a familiar script in the wake of mass killings. But the evidence shows violence is extremely rare among the mentally ill.